When to Bring Google Ads In-House: Stop Paying Agency Fees for "Maintenance"
Businesses "graduate" from full-service PPC agencies when their ppc account structure stabilizes and automation handles daily optimization effectively.
At this stage, paying high retainers for maintenance is capital inefficiency; however, completely removing expert oversight often creates "performance drift."
The strategic solution is shifting from execution-based retainers to high-level advisory or "architectural" validation.
The paid search agency monthly fee:
If you’ve ever opened a monthly agency invoice, looked at the "management fee," and thought, "Wait, what did they actually do this month besides send me a report?" you aren’t being difficult.
You’re likely just noticing that your business has matured past the point of needing constant hand-holding and babysitting.
FAQ’s from my paid search consulting clients
As a subject matter expert, top 100 PPC expert, and writer for Search Engine Land and Search Engine journal my inbox is filled with business that want to pick my brain. Here are the questions that keep coming up.
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Don’t bring ads in-house until you are losing more on agency fees than the cost of a salary. Most companies make the mistake of hiring too early.
Stop outsourcing if:
You are paying an agency $5,000/month just to "maintain" things.
You don't have a documented system yet (you will just hire chaos).
You are afraid of learning the basics. If you bring it in-house without a playbook, you will lose money.
Fix the system first. Then hire.
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You are likely overpaying. Most agencies charge a "tax" on your growth. Standard pricing models that hurt your bottom line:
Percentage of Spend: They take 10%–20% of your budget. If you spend more, they get paid more. Even if you don't make more sales.
Flat Retainer: Usually $2,000–$5,000/month minimum.
Hourly: Rare, but often padded. If you pay a % of spend, you are incentivizing the agency to waste your money. Stop doing that.
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Setup is the architecture. Maintenance is often a retainer trap.
Setup: The hard work. Researching keywords. Writing ads. Setting up tracking. This is where 90% of the value is created.
Maintenance: The agency checks your account once a week. They tweak a bid. They send a report. Don't pay setup prices for maintenance work. If the account is built right, it shouldn't need constant repair.
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The fastest way to cut fees is to stop being a "renter" of your own data.
Kill the % of ad spend model. Demand a flat fee.
Own your account. Never let an agency create an account you don't own.
Switch to "Consultant + Execution." Pay an expert to build the system, then have a junior in-house person run it. Stop paying for a logo on an invoice. Pay for results.
The PPC Agency Model is Broken: Stop Paying a "Success Tax" and Bring Your Ads In-House
Let’s be honest about how the paid search marketing industry actually works.
Most agencies operate on a model that benefits them, not you. They charge a fee based on how much money you spend, or they charge a flat monthly rate that stays high even when their workload drops to zero.
They get paid whether your business grows or stagnates.
In 2025, the landscape of Google Ads and paid search has changed. The "button pushing" and the manual bid adjustments, the negative keyword scrubbing, the tedious day-to-day tweaks is largely handled by AI and automation now.
If you have a mature ad account, you should NOT be paying premium agency fees for basic maintenance.
But you probably are.
You are likely paying what I call a "Success Tax." You built a business. You have a product that works. And now, you are paying an external team $5,000 or $10,000 a month just to keep the lights on.
It’s time to stop.
The PPC Tension Point
Here is the catch. Most founders and Marketing Directors realize this. You look at the invoice, you look at the results, and you do the math. You realize you are overpaying.
So, you fire the agency to save margin.
You hand the keys to a junior marketer on your team, or you rely entirely on Google’s automated recommendations.
Three months later? Performance crashes. Costs go up. Leads go down.
Why did this happen? Why did paid search start going downhill when you brought it in-house?
Because while you didn't need a heavy-handed agency, you stopped checking the system entirely. The "Architectural Integrity" of the account decayed because no one was watching the strategy.
You don't need an agency. But you can't just leave the account alone, either.
There is a third option. This is how I operate, and it is how smart companies are winning in 2025.
The Two Phases of Search Marketing: Build vs. Run
To make a smart financial decision, you have to separate your marketing into two distinct phases. Most people treat them as the same thing. They are not.
Phase 1: The Build (Scaling)
This is the heavy lifting part of PPC. This is taking a spend of $50k and scaling it to $200k. This requires testing, aggressive structural changes, creative overhauls, and constant hands-on keyboard time.
Resource Need: High execution, high strategy.
Cost: Worth the high retainer, but can also be done with a strategist like myself.
When you are in this phase, you pay for the expert. You pay for the hours. You pay for the sleepless nights fixing tracking errors and “optimizing”.
Phase 2: The Run (Optimization & Profitability)
Once the system is built, the work changes. You don't need an expert to check the account every single day. The heavy lifting is done.
Resource Need: Low execution, high strategy.
Cost: The high retainer is now wasted capital.
This is where the agency model fails you. They keep charging you "Phase 1" prices while doing "Phase 2" work.
You don't need someone to rebuild the system every week. You need a Strategist who looks at the data once a week and says, "We are drifting off course. Fix this one specific thing."
“We might want to look at what we are doing in email”
“A portion of the spend might want to move to programatic”
Introducing the PPC Validation Method
This is the bridge for brands that have outgrown the agency model but aren't ready to hire a CMO.
Many businesses think at this point they have “outgrown their agency”.
Unfortunately they have identified the issue but they turn around and hire another agency thinking it will be different.
You don’t need an agency to execute. This is the big mistake.
You have an in-house person, or you are smart enough to handle the basics. But you cannot afford to fly blind.
I call this The Validation Method.
It is a high-level engagement designed for decision-makers who want oversight without the bloat. It is not "management." It is "governance."
Here is how the logic shifts when you work with me:
1. PPC (The Anchor)
I stop tweaking bids. I stop pretending that moving a bid by 5 cents is going to save your business.
Instead, I audit the strategy. I ensure your internal team (or the algorithm) isn't drifting away from profitability. I validate that the money going out is actually bringing qualified leads in.
I look for the "Silent Killers" which the settings and features that Google changes without telling you (or that you miss because you aren’t in Google Ads documentation all day), or the keywords that start wasting budget unnoticed.
2. Total Search (Paid + Organic)
Silos kill growth. In the agency world, your SEO guy never talks to your PPC guy.
In the Validation Model, I use your paid data to direct your organic content strategy.
If I know a keyword converts at 15% on Google Ads, why aren’t we writing three blog posts about it? If we are spending $5,000 a month on a term that never converts, why are we trying to rank for it organically?
Paid Search buys data. Organic Search uses it. I make sure that transfer happens.
3. Retention (The Profit Check)
Traffic is vanity. Profit is sanity.
Most agencies only care about the "ROAS" or the “lowest CPA”. They don't care what happens after.
I validate that the traffic we are buying is actually turning into Lifetime Value (LTV) via your email and retention flows. If we buy a lead for $50, are they getting the right welcome email? Are they buying a second time?
If the answer is no, we don't spend more on ads. We fix the email.
The Strategic Value of Paid Search Consulting
You get the brain of a Head of Growth for a fraction of the cost of a traditional agency retainer.
You stop paying for "hours worked" and start paying for "mistakes avoided
Case Study: The Paid Search Agency "Graduation" in Practice
I recently worked with a client who had hit this exact ceiling. They were referred to me by a large agency.
The prior agency had successfully scaled them to market dominance using Google Ads. The account was incredible. It was efficient. It was profitable. It was an amazing referral.
But, keeping them on a high-fee maintenance contract felt wrong. This was an agency on the “up and up” not one of the bad agencies. They didn't need me in the account every day. The heavy lifting was done.
The Pivot:
Instead of staying with the paid search agency, I pivoted the client into a model where I was in specific advisory role that amounted to about 5 hours a month.
They saved money: No more massive management fees for "maintenance." They cut their external marketing bill by 60%.
I unlocked growth: Because I wasn't bogged down in bid adjustments, I had time to look at their Email and SEO channels.
I realized their paid traffic wasn't being nurtured properly. I fixed their flows, used PPC data to brief their content team, and grew the business more by doing less manual work.
They graduated. They took ownership of their success in paid search.
Now I Need to Prepare You: The Three Lies Agencies Tell You
If you try to leave your agency to switch to this model, they will panic. They will try to scare you. Here are the three lies they will tell you to keep you paying that monthly fee.
Lie #1: "The Algorithm changes every day." The Truth: It doesn't. Google changes the interface often, but the core principles of marketing which right offer, right person, right time do not change. They want you to feel overwhelmed so you feel dependent.
Lie #2: "You need a full team." The Truth: You are paying for their overhead. You are paying for their office rent, their sales team, and their ping-pong table. For a standard Google Ads account, you need one smart person and one strategic overseer. That's it.
Lie #3: "We have proprietary tech." The Truth: Usually, this just means they use a third-party tool that creates automated reports. Or worse, they use a "black box" bidding software that hides the data from you. If they can't show you exactly what they are doing in the Google Ads dashboard, run.
Is The Paid Search Consulting Model Right For You?
This is not for everyone.
If you have a budget of $2,000 a month, you are perfect for this. You have a low budget and can’t afford an agency.
If you are spending $30k, $50k, or $100k+ a month on ads, you are currently spending tons money on management fees that provide zero incremental value. You should absolutely consider my 90-Day-Ditch The Retainer.
Self-Diagnosis Checklist:
[ ] Do you receive monthly reports that look great but don't match your bank account?
[ ] Does your agency bill go up when you spend more, even if they didn't do extra work?
[ ] Do you feel like you don't actually own your marketing strategy?
[ ] Is your agency "maintaining" rather than "growing"?
If you checked any of those boxes, you are stuck in the Agency Trap.
Practical Takeaway
Look at your last three months of Google Ads performance. Now look at your agency invoices.
If performance is flat (stable) and the invoice is high, you are paying for insurance, not growth.
It might be time to stop paying for activity and start paying for strategy.
You don't need a massive team. You need a validated system, a junior operator to run it, and an expert to ensure it never breaks.
Would you like me to audit your current setup to see if you are ready to "graduate" to the Validation Method?
It starts with a simple conversation. No sales team. No jargon. Just me, you, and the numbers.
